This course explores fiction by/about immigrants, examining U.S. history and culture through their stories. Participants focus primarily on 20th- and 21st-century texts by Jewish, Latin American, Caribbean, Asian and African migrants to understand how they represent the race, class and gender barriers (and opportunities) that underlie the American Dream. We also use critical scholarship on racial formation, immigration, citizenship, human rights and diaspora to produce presentations and essays. Students use these concepts to help theorize how the most marginalized “aliens” have made America the complex and contradictory nation it is today.
Prerequisites: Take one 200-level English course.
Offered: Every other year, Spring
